Senate Democrats to Advance Shorter Budget Measure

Senate Democrats will advance a shorter-term measure to keep the government funded after Sept. 30, hoping to move quickly to a more permanent spending program and past the contentious fights that have tied up both chambers of Congress for weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said Tuesday that he has filed an amendment to continue government services through Nov. 15 instead of Dec. 15, the date set by the House. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, said earlier in the day that the step was under discussion.

Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.) told reporters she sought a shorter-term funding extension because she feared Congress would leave the across-the-board cuts known as the “sequester’’ in place for the rest of the fiscal year.

A full-year status quo funding bill would mean “we’re on autopilot and you’ve accepted the sequester as the new normal,’’ said Ms. Mikulski. “I reject both.’’ She said her goal was to find a way to cancel the “sequester’’ cuts for two years.

At a closed-door lunch on Tuesday, many Senate Republicans discussed dropping their objections to the so-called continuing resolution and speeding up a Senate vote to give the Republican-controlled House time to rework any spending measure that clears the Democratic-controlled Senate. Unless Congress acts, the government will begin a partial shut down next Tuesday. Republicans fear that if a Senate vote is delayed for too long, the House will have too little time to maneuver an alternative spending measure through the chamber.

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